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Congress makes it harder for DoD to cut costs

Tuesday - 4/23/2013, 3:47am EDT

LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Parked around the airstrip at Lackland Air Force Base are
more than a dozen massive C-5A Galaxy transport planes. There is no money to fly
them, repair them or put pilots in the cockpits, but Congress rejected the Air
Force's bid to retire them.

So every now and then, crews will tow the planes
around the Texas tarmac a bit to make sure the tires don't rot, then send them
back into exile until they can finally get permission to commit the aging aircraft
to the boneyard.

It's not an unfamiliar story.

Idle aircraft and
pricey ship deployments underscore the contradictions and conflicts as Congress
orders the Pentagon to slash $487 billion in spending over the next 10 years and
another $41 billion in the next six months. Yet, at the same time, lawmakers are
forcing the services to keep ships, aircraft, military bases, retiree benefits and
other programs that defense leaders insist they don't want, can't afford or simply
won't be able to use. The Associated Press interviewed senior military leaders
involved in the ongoing analysis of the budget and its impact on the services and
compiled data on the costs and programs from Defense Department documents.

The Pentagon long has battled with Congress over politically sensitive spending
cuts. But this year, military officials say Congress' refusal to retire ships and
aircraft means the Navy and Air Force are spending roughly $5 billion more than
they would if they were allowed to make the cuts. In some cases Congress restored
funds to compensate for the changes, but the result overall was lost savings.

In other cases, frustrated military leaders quietly complained that they were
being forced to furlough civilians, ground Air Force training flights and delay or
cancel ship deployments to the Middle East and South America, while Congress
refuses to accept savings in other places that could ease those pains.

Along
the eastern seaboard, two Navy cruisers -- the USS Anzio in Norfolk, Va., and the
USS Vicksburg in Mayport, Fla. -- were scheduled for retirement this year but both
are now sitting pierside. Navy leaders will soon schedule the ships for
significant repairs and begin readying their crews so they can go back into
service.

Altogether, Congress is requiring the Navy to keep seven cruisers
and two amphibious warships in service, eliminating the $4.3 billion the
retirements would have saved over the next two years.

"A lot of it comes
down to parochial political interests," said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "No member of Congress wants to
have a base closed in their district or to have a fighter squadron relocated out
of their district."

Members of Congress argue that they believe the Pentagon
sometimes makes bad decisions and other times may purposely target programs that
have broad support.

"Certainly that has been a pattern, they've cut Guard
and Reserves in areas where it's clearly unwise and Congress steps in to put the
money in," said Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Armed Services
air and land forces subcommittee.

While the Navy sought to retire the seven
ships, the Air Force wanted to save more than $600 million by retiring C-130 and
C-5A cargo aircraft, three B-1 bombers and 18 high-altitude Global Hawk
surveillance drones.

Congress disagreed, adding various requirements that
the Navy and Air Force maintain the ships and aircraft, and in some cases added
money to the budget to cover them. Fifteen of the C-5A Galaxy aircraft no longer
set to retire are at Lackland, while 11 are at Martinsburg, W.Va., and are flown
by the Air National Guard there.

A senior Air Force official said the
service determined that it didn't need all of the aging aircraft. And it pushed to
cut the Global Hawks because defense officials determined that the U-2 spy plane,
first produced more than 50 years ago, was better suited for the high-altitude
surveillance job and would cost less money.

The official also noted that
while lawmakers rejected plans to retire the Galaxy aircraft, congressional
appropriators did not add back money to pay for the fuel or the manpower to fly
them. Similarly, the three B-1 bombers will move into backup status and likely
will be used infrequently. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about
the budget, so requested anonymity.

The decision to block retirement of some
C-130s, however, reveals how narrow, yet critical, the political interests can be.
Pennsylvania lawmakers declared victory last month when they reversed the decision
to retire eight C-130s and shut down the 911th Airlift Wing near Pittsburgh. Local
officials and business owners argued that the base, which uses space at Pittsburgh
International Airport, provides an economic boost to the entire community.